Reddit -- a social news site operated by Condé Nast parent Advance Publications -- has finally pulled the plug on an embattled category dubbed "r/jailbait". In an interview with the Daily Dot, Reddit staffer Max Goodman confirms, "The section has been shut down."

A message on the board reads, "This subreddit has been shut down due to threatening the structural integrity of the greater reddit community."

So what was r/jailbait and why was it shut down?

Well as the name suggests it was a section was essentially a monument to some users' ephobophilia -- expressing a sexual preference for teenagers. The site primarily dealt in individuals 14 and older -- past the typical age of biological puberty -- but had strict rules, given that posting sexual images of anyone under 18 is a cybercrime in the United States. Thus Reddit required its users, who enthusiastically combed public profiles on sites like Facebook for "hot" teens, to only post pictures of clothed individuals.

The shutdown came when a user post a picture of a 14 year old female that they claimed was their ex-girlfriend. They mentioned that they had nude pictures of her. After receiving over 70 request for these pictures, the user posted censored image of the 14 year old nude.

According to Matthew Sharkey, a Reddit user who was monitoring the thread at the time, the picture was of a child's face with blond hair. The top and bottom of the image was censored with images of the Power Puff Girls, but Sharkey says that, based on unobscured parts of the image and comments made by TheContortionist, the girl in the picture was engaged in oral sex. (Sharkey notified the FBI about the thread soon after.)

The shutdown irritated many reddit fans, who had expressed enthusiasm about the site's past defense of r/jailbait as "free speech". Many irrate fans cried "PC bullshit excuses" in posts and laid the blame on Anderson Cooper who recently aired an investigative report on the board. They claim that Mr. Cooper and reddit's staff are censoring their freedom.

However, these individuals are more than a bit confused. The Anderson Cooper report actually appeared to boost r/jailbait giving it 30,000 more visitors, 4 million new page views, and more than 1,000 new subscribers to reddit. And it was reddit itself that made the decision to pull the plug after its users started violating the board's rules.

The board had already shut down once August when a battle between two moderators broke out. So the shutdown shouldn't exactly come as a surprise to redditors

Ultimately, for better or worst r/jailbait appears to be gone from the online world and ephebophiles-cum-pedobears will have to wander over to 4Chan or other user-generated content communities to engage in their beloved past-time -- finding images of teenagers.

These users should bear in mind that Reddit is a business and flirts with the mainstream, despite capturing a bit of the 4Chan-like vibe. And like any business that's looking to appeal average American adults, the last thing it wants to look like is that it's supporting child pornography.

Reddit restricts users free speech in a variety of ways (as part of the site's "reddiquette") -- including banning posts in all caps and banning correcting users on their grammar (or more aptly, lack therof).

I'm guessing they would flock to something that starts with a 'T' ends with an 'R' and has an 'O' in the middle.

I guess the moral of the story is, don't let you kid dress like a slut and then allow them to be photographed and posted on line. There are three check points that you have to go through there for the ones who can't count. I bet you won't see any Mennonites on reddit! Back in the day there was no such thing as inadvertent porn. Now there is because people just run around just "lettin' it all hang out" and you can get a picture and share it with the whole world. e.g. Nancy Grace... if you don't want people to see your nipple, don't expose your disgusting cleavage and walk the line!